The next time you decide to treat the street as a trash can, you could end up paying a steep fine for your dirty habits. Since their creation six months ago, the North and East Municipal Corporations have fined 28,000 and 10,000 residents, respectively, for creating insanitary conditions in public places. Offences include littering, urinating, spitting and throwing construction waste on the roads.

In comparison, the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi challaned just about 10,000-15000 people a year.

Littering will set you back by Rs. 500 while those who dump construction waste on roads — the biggest offenders — will have to pay a steeper fine of Rs. 2,000-3,000 and will also be made to remove the mess at their own expense.

The fines from the last six months have generated Rs. 3 crore in extra revenue for the civic agencies while the challaning drive has made a difference, especially among shopkeepers and hawkers, say officials.

“Residents of Delhi, including the general public and shopkeepers, often dump garbage outside their houses or litter public roads and block them. Many of them have been slapped with fines, which they have to pay to the special metropolitan magistrate,” said east municipal commissioner SS Yadav, warning that sanitation inspectors were on the prowl.